The Third Industrial Revolution

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The 1,000mph (Mach 1.4) car

Good to see that Rolls-Royce has now joined the companies sponsoring Bloodhound, the project to build a car that will try to set a 1,000mph world land speed record. Some people wonder what’s the point of this sort of thing. When you push engineering beyond its limits you never know what you might learn, and for companies already involved in Bloodhound the chance to stretch their talent is reason enough. But there is another. Firms constantly complain about the difficulty of attracting young people into manufacturing and engineering. Bloodhound is a way of stimulating that interest. An education programme is running in tandem with the project and more than 5,000 schools have joined in so far. Besides working on some complex aerodynamics for the team, Rolls-Royce will also be training people to give lessons at the schools. Bloodhound has borrowed a military Rolls-Royce EJ200 jet engine for their car. But that is only one of three engines being used. The company are also using a Cosworth Formula 1 engine to pump fuel into a hybrid rocket for the final burst of power. More here: http://moreintelligentlife.co.uk/content/lifestyle/paul-markillie/hot-wheels

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2 thoughts on “The 1,000mph (Mach 1.4) car”

Hi Paul. Another great piece. The Bloodhound team came to my son’s primary school in Wiltshire and the children loved it. While they were there Bloodhound sponsored a competition for the fastest balloon powered car. My son won and has been proudly wearing his Bloodhound hoodie ever since. I’ll let you know if he ends up a Rolls Royce apprentice …

Paul Markillie is Innovation Editor of The Economist. He specialises in writing about emerging and disruptive technologies. His special report “The Third Industrial Revolution” was published by The Economist in 2012 as a cover story and attracted international interest. Other more recent reports include "Knit me a car", a special report on new materials in manufacturing. His previous special reports have included carmaking, aerospace and logistics. Paul was The Economist’s first Asian Business Correspondent, based in Hong Kong, and also served as Asia Editor.